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Government Control in the Digital Age **Townhall ^ ** | 12/17/2025 | John Stossel

Posted on 12/18/2025 6:50:20 AM PST by Presbyterian Reporter

In a TSA announcement, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem sternly warns, "You will need a REAL ID to travel by air or visit federal buildings."

European politicians go much further, reports Stossel TV producer Kristin Tokarev.

They’re pushing government-mandated digital IDs that tie your identity to nearly everything you do.

Spain’s prime minister promises "an end to anonymity" online!

Britain’s prime minister warns, "You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID."

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands enthusiastically told the World Economic Forum that digital IDs are good for knowing "who actually got a vaccination or not."

Many American tech leaders also like digital IDs.

The second richest man in the world, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, says, "Citizens will be on their best behavior because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything."

That’s a good thing?

"That is a recipe for disaster and totalitarianism!" says privacy specialist Naomi Brockwell. "Privacy is not about hiding. It’s about an individual’s right to decide for themselves who gets access to their data. A digital ID will strip individuals of that choice."

"I already have a government-issued ID," says Tokarev. "Why is a digital one worse?"

"It connects everything," says Brockwell. "Your financial decisions, social media posts, your likes, things that you’re watching, places you’re going. You won’t be able to voice things anonymously online anymore. Everything you say will be tied back to who you are."

Digital ID backers say the new ID will make life easier.

"You can access your own money, make payments so much more easily," says the U.K.’s prime minister.

Yes, says Brockwell, "until those services start saying, ‘No, you can’t use our system.’"

Even without a digital ID, Canada froze the bank accounts of truckers who protested COVID vaccine mandates.

With a digital ID, politicians could do that much more easily.

"You’re essentially putting a giant target on every aspect of your life," warns Brockwell, "wrapping it up in a nice bow and saying, ‘Here, if you want to control me, just untie this.’"

In the U.S., many states are passing age verification laws that require you to identify yourself and prove your age before accessing certain websites.

Proponents say this will protect kids from dangerous content.

"Unfortunately, politicians just can’t promise that it will only ever be used for that," says Brockwell. "You always have governments with these great-sounding bills called the ‘Let’s-Stop-All-the-Bad-People-Doing-All-the-Bad-Things’ Bill. ... But what they’re voting for is a system of control and oppression. ... You’ll be ranked based on past activities and choices that you’ve made."

China does that.

People with low social credit scores may be denied entry into schools or find they cannot buy a train ticket.

"It makes you super easy to target!" says Brockwell, "easy to silence if suddenly you become ‘problematic.’ Whoever controls that data has a lot of power. We’re simply handing it to them. People need to be aware that they have no control over who will get access to this tool and who will control this tool in the future."

Tokarev points out that companies like Facebook, Google, and Chase Bank already have her data. "Shouldn’t I trust my government more?"

"Governments, unlike companies, can throw you in jail," Brockwell replies.

"This is America," says Tokarev. "We’re not going to become China."

"We are skyrocketing towards that direction!" insists Brockwell. "The surveillance infrastructure we’re trying to put in place in the United States is heading directly towards where China currently is."

What can we do about it?

"People need to be reminded that they’re empowered to actually affect that change," says Brockwell. "They can reach out to representatives; they can push back. Protect themselves and not build this infrastructure in the first place."

Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of "Government Gone Wild: Exposing the Truth Behind the Headlines."

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TOPICS: News/Current Events KEYWORDS: ai

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John Stossel fails to talk about the ‘root cause’ for the need for REAL ID.

Namely, corrupt and incompetent Federal, State, and Local governments.

For example, we have a very corrupted Election System in the USA. Government officials fight against cleaning up the voter rolls or demanding to see someone’s ID when they come to the polling place.

So the public demands REAL ID to fix the problem caused by government.

Government responds by saying: "OK, we will implement a digital ID that will fix the voting system AND also use digital ID to do all these other wonderful things as described by Stossel.

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To: Presbyterian Reporter

“Canada froze the bank accounts of truckers who protested COVID vaccine mandates.”

When government is the criminal.

2 posted on 12/18/2025 7:00:12 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)

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To: Presbyterian Reporter

Sadly, we are not a free country anymore. You used to could drive across this country and nobody knew where you were. You can’t go 10 feet know without being on a camera, license plate tracker, or tracked via purchases and phones. Your phone listens to you. Your car tells anyone who wants to know where you are, and if you don’t think your newest gen of smart tv’s cannot see you in your house you have your head in the sand.

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To: Presbyterian Reporter

I have a govt-issued Driver’s License, CCW Permit and Voter ID. No REAL ID crap in my future.

4 posted on 12/18/2025 7:13:58 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)

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To: Presbyterian Reporter

They government promotes widespread crime so people will beg to have a Police State.

5 posted on 12/18/2025 7:15:33 AM PST by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism. )

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To: Presbyterian Reporter

Right after the 2020 coup, a lot of conservatives had their bank accounts closed. If the general population had social credit scores, the cabal would have shut all of us down.

I’ve never heard any politician anywhere on the political spectrum propose to protect privacy and stop the impending Orwellian state.

6 posted on 12/18/2025 7:27:59 AM PST by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism. )

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To: UnwashedPeasant

“”””They government promotes widespread crime so people will beg to have a Police State.”””””

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You mean kinda like the government importing millions of illegal aliens so the people will beg the government to remove them.

Or like the government spending more money than their tax receipts and creating inflation so the people will beg government for handouts.

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To: Carriage Hill

The left says no ID needed to vote, but wants ID needed to just move around.

8 posted on 12/18/2025 7:49:16 AM PST by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 – Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)

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To: Presbyterian Reporter

They put the “real ID” verification star on our GA driver’s license a few years ago. So far, there doesn’t seem to be any issue. If they mandate a digital ID and freeze my accounts I will have a very negative reaction and be forced to express my displeasure to those responsible.

9 posted on 12/18/2025 7:49:40 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)

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To: Resolute Conservative

Yep. We’ve been the frog in the boiling pot for a few decades now.

10 posted on 12/18/2025 8:03:48 AM PST by 9YearLurker

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To: Tell It Right

Yep, same leftist lowlifes who threw the borders wide open, who attack Jews and who rioted and burned 574+ cities’ locations in ‘20.

11 posted on 12/18/2025 8:06:38 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)

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To: bk1000

“””They put the “real ID” verification star on our GA driver’s license a few years ago. So far, there doesn’t seem to be any issue. If they mandate a digital ID and freeze my accounts I will have a very negative reaction and be forced to express my displeasure to those responsible.””””

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I likewise have a FL ‘real id’ driver’s license. I have no problem with that.

The future problem happens when the government collects the data on: 1. My driver’s license 2. My credit cards 3. My cars GPS 4. My bank accounts 5. My medical records 6. My many other records

and stores all of that data on a central computer system.

That is when ‘Big Brother’ can totally control people by violating the illegal search and seizure rights.

The public is not getting the straight answers as to what Artificial Intelligence is all about.

And that is why states like Florida are opposing Trump’s plan to have the Feds overrule the state’s rights to regulate AI.

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